Reform UK has told Prime Minister Andy Burnham to make a key change regarding migrants in Britain. The party wants to see the new prime minister enable local councils to prevent asylum seekers from being housed in their areas.
It comes as more migrants arrived in the UK than were sent back to France in the first 11 months of the government's “one in, one out” deal, according to new figures. Some 1,117 asylum seekers came to Britain from France from August 2025 to June 2026, while slightly fewer (1,087) were deported, according to Home Office data.
Deal terms and recent incidents
Under the terms of the deal aimed at curbing migrant Channel crossings, people who arrived in the UK after making the journey could be detained and returned to France in exchange for an equivalent number of asylum seekers who apply through a safe and legal route.
Earlier this month, two asylum seekers who repeatedly raped a woman on Brighton beach, and a third who filmed it, were jailed for the “entirely predatory and callous attack”. Egyptian national Ibrahim Alshafe, 26, and Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, were jailed for 21 years each for raping the woman on October 4 last year, while Egyptian national Karin Al-Danasurt, 21, was sentenced to 18 years and six months.
Reform's demand and government plans
Zia Yusuf, Reform's spokesperson for home affairs, said, according to The Telegraph: “My letter is co-signed by leaders of 24 councils. They were elected representing over 8.5 million people who voted for Reform councils. They do not want unvetted illegal migrants dumped in their areas. Burnham must fully devolve the power to stop the housing of illegal migrants in local communities by the Home Office.”
Ministers have said they will do “whatever it takes” to close asylum hotels as the Government faces opposition to plans to move migrants into former military barracks. Planning permission was being sought at Ministry of Defence sites in Bicester in Oxfordshire, Barnham in Suffolk, and Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, to accommodate 3,750 asylum seekers, the department said in June. The Government was also looking to expand the use of existing sites in Crowborough in East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield in Essex beyond 2027.
